What’s Happening Today – Page 14

February 23, 2007February 3, 2019

Kelowna, BC Delivery for Rapidgo

Kids; there is so much excitement surrounding a long, arduous road trip. I took a load of lighting fixtures out to Kelowna, BC in February 2007. I was a bit apprehensive leaving, even though I knew the truck was safe and I had credit cards in case of breakdown. It was the middle of winter across Canada. It takes 13 hours of driving to get out of Ontario, two days to Calgary and then arriving in Kelowna the third afternoon. Grueling. I slept for 24 hours and still felt my body buzzing from the road. Refreshed, I started back at about 4am. To look good, I took the truck through a car wash before leaving Kelowna. That turned out not to be such a great idea when the locks froze and I was on the outside of a locked, running truck, in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

Headed up to Rogers Pass. The Canadian military use howitzers to fire on potential avalanches. There are sections of the road that are covered in concrete to protect from avalanches every year.

Reached Rogers Pass. Cold, cold, cold!

Leaving Kelowna, headed back 4am.

I got out to take this picture and inadvertently hit the door lock on my way out. Thinking I was smart to have a backup key in my pocket, I thought I was safe until I realized that washing the truck before starting out in the cold led to the locks freezing. I went from lock to lock for quite awhile, breathing on the key and then trying it in the frozen lock. Fortunately, it finally worked. A real McGyver move.

The road my GPS gave me was actually a logging road that is not used in winter. There are no poles, lanes, roads or anything for 3 hours. Locals told me I could have died up there and not been found until Spring.

Local Beaverdell restaurant, deep in the BC interior.

Headed toward the US border. Beautiful morning. crisp, with frozen mist on everything.

Got into Montana and found out the road I was on had been closed several hours before. This is the re-direct route. It took me 3 hours to go 50 miles. Couldn’t see any further than this for the entire time.

Never so glad to see an interstate again.

Montana got much better.

Chicago skyline. Yay, only 11 hours to home.

January 4, 2001February 3, 2019

Leadership Speaker N21 2001

I was thrilled to be asked to speak to the entire eastern US Network 21 leadership in 2001. I chose the story of Alexander The Great as an example of leadership. Enjoy!

James Speaking

October 20, 1977July 31, 2018

Eden Mills, ON

I moved to an Eden Mills farm while attending the University of Guelph in about 1977. Liz Marusic and I, along with Rick Paine rented a century farmhouse from a company to which Bill McDonald sold the farm. Bill lived next door with his daughter, so when we needed help getting the well-pump to work or the furnace, Bill would gladly come over and shows how to get things back to working again.

I really had space for the expansion of Lambda Crystal there. I also built a sauna, of course, from wood milled at the Ferguson’s mill down the road. Beautiful cedar board, that I used on the walls and seats. I bought the heater and installed myself. Awesome experience, waking up, passing by the coffee pot to grab a java, head to the sauna, which was on a timer to be just hot enough by the time I got inside to wake up in quiet solitude, heat and coffee. Just does not get much better than that.

Because I like to cook, and Liz did as well, we would create Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners at the farm for all the stragglers who did not make it home for the holidays. We would feed upwards of 25 people, turkey, duck ham and all the fixings. Here are a few pictures from those days.Me, Liz, Penney Kome, Dillon Kome, Andrew Smith, Rick Paine, Dogs (Sam, Bouke, Bouke and Sam’s mom, Penney’s dog. Penney KomeMe with Bouke and SammyLiz with Sam, in front, Bouke in Liz’s arms.

Liz with Tramp, Kim Boggild’s dog. Tramp was a great dog as well.

Tim Todd, who single-handedly toppled the hydro pole in front of the house when he drove a rental moving truck into the line to the house and pulled the pole down. Thank somebody it was covered by insurance. Notice the VW in the background. I drove that to Toronto to sell crystal with my anatomy book on the passenger seat while reciting, there are five branches of the Iliac artery….

The kitchen area of Eden Mills. You can see the structure holding up the vent on our home made wood stove. The support was from the first Lambda Crystal gift show display. I had a wrought iron welder in Toronto create it to my design. It worked well. The stove was a hot water heater that I had a door welded onto and a hole for the vent. It was the best stove ever, and practically free. We heated the whole end of the house with that stove. Thanksgiving or Christmas dinnerThis is a special event. My mother would send OK potato chips from Ohio to me. In my opinion, OK and Old Grand Dads chips are the best. In this picture, we had all agreed that the chips were “OK”. Front left is Catherine, a small person from Elora (Barry?), Tim Todd, Rich Paine, Kate, Liz (who worked for Lambda Crystal), myself, Kent Griffin of Magic Mountain, Rob Young and Tyler of Magic Mountain.The garden Rick, Liz and I grew. Lots of fun.

This is a frisbee day. Rick, myself, and Tim played hours of frisbee. I have held onto that belt buckle ever since. That is a story all by itself.Liz and me in the Eden Mills kitchen.